1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to communication. Specifically, the present invention relates to content access.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Internet technology is pervasive and widely deployed. A large variety of content may be accessed over the Internet. The content is often stored in servers. A client machine communicates with a server to access the content.
As the Internet continues to expand, a large volume of clients attempt to access content on the Internet. This may result in a bottleneck if the clients are each attempting to access content from the same server. As a result, in conventional systems, the same content is often deployed on multiple servers. In addition to enabling more clients to get simultaneous access to the data, deploying the content on multiple servers often has ancillary benefits, such as system redundancy, greater security, etc.
However, the server is not the only bottleneck. The communication path from the client to the server may also serve as a bottleneck for communication. In addition, while there are some techniques for load balancing, the primary server is often disproportionately loaded relative to the other servers. As a result, the client experiences a slow response time either because of the disproportionate loading of a server or because of bottlenecks in the communication path.
Thus, there is a need for a method of discerning which server will provide the best response time to a client. There is the need for a method of determining which communication path will provide the best response time and throughput to a client. Lastly, there is a need for a method of determining which client in combination with the communication path will provide the best response time to a client.